Blinded By The Light

Paint stores use harsh fluorescent lights that make colors evenly and brightly lit. The reason you are blinded by the light. This is like a portrait filter that disappears the minute you bring those color chips home.

That is not how light works in nature, real life, or in your home.

At home, light dances all day to its own beat, differently in every room and every hour. There is no way to put light in a corner. This makes you the only source of light in your space that counts, and the colors you choose either amplify or dim that light through your body’s wisdom, color harmony, and emotional beauty.

Yellow is a reflection of light that, like the sun, promises to brighten your darkest days. Italian, French, and Caribbean yellows are brightening people’s lives all day, every day.

In the U.S., in the 90s and early 00s, they did too.

Yellow was the color everyone wanted, especially in the Northwest, where skies are gray nine months out of the year. People craved that warm, friendly daylight and were willing to go the extra mile of finding the magical yellow that would do it. Then, just like mauve in the 80s, yellow became a pariah.

Today, no one wants yellow walls. So it seems.

Because nothing you buy today coordinates with yellow.It wasn't a choice. When Devine Color got into Target, the first thing they gave me was a Pantone selection of colorways to use because everything in the store was to be coordinated.

Your color baggage at home isn’t.

Once people realized that and looked at how many yellow things they lived with, through art and natural woods like oak floors, maple cabinets, granite, or fireplace brick, they began to color everything gray, right down to floor stains.

Eventually, the gray felt so cold and dystopian that Pantone recommended two colors in 2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Chosen to symbolize resilience, optimism, and solid foundation with a bright, uplifting promise of sunshine.

Except sunlight is not bright on cloudy days.

This year, they recommended everyone go white. 2026, Cloud Dancer. Society needs calm, reflection, and a fresh start. Except they are already blinded by white walls that screamed modern.

To counter the white-light fatigue, they turned to tan as the new quiet luxury. In a tanning booth effect, everything has become shades of tan, with white accents. Now, like in the 80s, jewel tones are popping up as a splash of color.

They say there is nothing new under the sun, but I say yes, and our sun’s light is what makes everything new again, with millions of color reflections painting nature as the ultimate color influencer, and you as the ultimate color expert of your life through the colorful experience that made you fall in love with the world.

Color attractions drive you to lose sleep trying to find the perfect color. You are not craving the perfect color. You are craving the agency, power, and action to belong in the world by painting your own.

Yellow is associated with purpose, power, and solar energy, as in the sun. Imagine a sun coming out of your belly button, shining your path ahead with your will. It is located behind our belly button, a scar that reminds us that we are all connected by the same light, but separated from each other by our unique, colorful reflection.

Such was the case when a client of mine called me to come over and help her with color in her home. She and her husband were stuck and had been for a while. They had decided to sell their home and buy another and had been searching for weeks, but could not agree on anything.

She was unhappy.

I was happy to intervene.

When you walked in the entry, to the right was a narrow galley kitchen. On the other side, the living room, with an enormous angled, dark brown, rough cedar-paneled fireplace that took up the entire wall. An Oregon bonus: it had an oval-shaped forest carving in the center. It looked like a giant turd in the middle of the room. I kid you not.

Think 1970s luxury ranch-style.

The plan was to blow out the entire fireplace and have an open living room and kitchen floor plan. I thought it was a great plan, but they had decided to move instead. Until they found a home they both could agree on, she at least wanted to paint.

I told her that the right shade of rich golden yellow on the walls would make the wood look warmer and richer. It would balance the heavy weight of the fireplace and create contrast without making the room feel heavy. 

The room would feel bright and colorful.

She was terrified, excited, and confident all at the same time. At least she no longer felt crazy. She had all this fabulous and colorful abstract art that would now pop, drawing the attention away from the fireplace. She knew it was right because she had that dark brown and rich gold in a lot of their stuff. All of it made sense.

In the middle of painting, she called me and asked me to stop by. I did.

It was magnificent.

The fireplace had gone beyond improvement. It had changed shape and form. It had transformed. Everything they owned looked as if they had bought it for the room.

As the two of us stood there admiring her work, her husband walked in. I asked him how he felt about the transformation. His answer was, “I hate yellow.”

I laughed and said, “Ironically, it is a shade called Fuck You Yellow, so it is a perfect match.”

He studied me to see if I was making fun of him. I was not. I was being funny because I thought he was being funny. We all had a big laugh, then I left.

She left him three months later.

She finally realized why they were so stuck. They could not buy or remodel their existing home because no amount of improvement was going to deliver the sense of happiness and security she was looking for as long as they were together.

Yellow did its job. It shun brightly, let the shadows reveal contrast to have clarity, and feel clearly when she couldn't see.

When it comes to coloring your home from a place of belonging, warning: objects are closer than they appear.

Color is not only what you see. It is what your light, your room, your body, and your memories reflect back to you. This is why every color reflection matters.

Coloring is an act of belonging. You are the palette.